sketcher, settler and civil servant, was born on 9 November 1813 at Vineyard Cottage, Parramatta, New South Wales, eldest of the five sons of Hannibal Hawkins Macarthur and Anna Maria, eldest daughter of Governor Philip Gidley King . On 3 March 1851 James married Margaret Haldane Callander in St John’s Church of England, Canbury, Limestone Plains, NSW (now Canberra, ACT). For a time Macarthur was a stipendiary magistrate at Port Sorell, Tasmania (his elder daughter, Marian, was born at Calstock, Deloraine, in December 1851). The family was living in York Street, Launceston, in June 1853 when their younger daughter, Maria, was born. The family moved to Sydney in 1854; Maria died on 12 January on board the Lizzie Webster en route. From Sydney the Macarthurs moved to Victoria. They were at Heidelberg in June 1856 when their second son was born. By 1857 they were back at Launceston, the year their youngest son, Gratian, was born and died.
James Macarthur’s only known collection of sketches (Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery) includes Torquay from Jowett’s Garden Fence (1860, pen and wash) and Wood’s Point—Showing Rob. Stewart’s Old Jetty (undated, watercolour), both Victorian views. He died at Goulburn, New South Wales, on 26 October 1862.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
